This is a discussion on Subaru Warns All Dealers to "Void" Warranties for Specific Mods within the General Maintenance, Troubleshooting & Accidents. forums, part of the Tech & Modifying & General Repairs category; Originally posted by QuickSilver
I think this is a good sticky for the newcomers.
For those of us who's been ...

Originally posted by QuickSilver I think this is a good sticky for the newcomers.

For those of us who's been on this forum awhile...nothing new. I would be curious to see what the after-market parts manufactiurers feel about their specific products being named as offenders. If I was Blitz or Greddy or even Autometer, I'd be pissed. And these are big-wig companies who could support a decent lawyer or two.

A lot of the bigger companies, if you file a claim with them, during their warranty period as well, may reimburse you for the repairs, pending their investigation.

I've got to agree with Cincy-Rex. Subaru knows exactly who they're selling to and their marketing definitely contradicts their warranty language.

I also agree that the company is missing out on a lot of oportunity. If I were Subaru I would really consider creating a stock of warranty-backed aftermarket parts. With the warranty, they could charge more for the parts than the other aftermarket companies (given the decreased risk) and really cater to their chosen demographic. Now that the muscle wars are back it makes sense to act like Mopar and Ford did back in the late 60's - make a whole business out of supplying all the little things you need to get extra horsepower and manage to build brand loyalty in the process.

Of course, everything is 'within reason.' Nobody should expect to make 400hp and have their car covered by a warranty.

All in all, its a shame that Subaru needs to release a n 'outlawed mods' list. It would be nice if everyone in the process were smart and honest enough to allow them to just send a message to the dealers telling them to use their heads and be reasonable. Maybe in car utopia...

For now I'll just grapple with the usual question - Do I want 3/36 or 300?

I dont get you people...Subarus policy is the same as any other vehicle manufacturers....and NO Subaru does not automatically void the warranty due to an aftermarket product being installed on the car. All the bulletin states is that SOA must be NOTIFED if there is a performance modification to the vehicle when it comes in for a warranty repair. Subaru has the right to know what the dealers are working on when Subaru is paying for the repairs. Plus in order to accurately diagnose a vehicle they also need to know if it has mods that could affect the diagnosis.

All of you go to at least one other brand of car and pull out the Warranty & Maintanance Booklet (or equivalent) from the glovebox and compare it to SOAs. How much you want to bet they are nearly verbatim? NO MANUFACTURER will cover a repair on a vehicle that has been ABUSED/DRIVEN ABUYSIVELY. What are you nuts? Pay particular attention to the sections on when and how warranty can be voided. You will see it is all legitimate. Just because a company makes a sports car doesnt mean they will cover repairs due to people beating the crap out of them or driving them in a manner inconsistant with a passenger vehicle.

Right on guys. In order to demonstrate that your warrantee will not be automatically voided because of certain mods, my dealer actually said that a Subaru representative was going to come and inspect my car when my rear diff got trashed. It wasn't because they wanted to get me out of their face - Subaru just wanted to make sure that the mods I had at the time did not cause or contribute to the problem. The Subaru rep never actually came, and the dealer replaced my diff, so it's all good.

I actually plan on taking my car in for steering and clutch hydraulic system warrantee work pretty soon, and I'm not worrying about whether or not the dealer will fix it.

Originally posted by Samirr76 I dont get you people...Subarus policy is the same as any other vehicle manufacturers....and NO Subaru does not automatically void the warranty due to an aftermarket product being installed on the car. All the bulletin states is that SOA must be NOTIFED if there is a performance modification to the vehicle when it comes in for a warranty repair. Subaru has the right to know what the dealers are working on when Subaru is paying for the repairs. Plus in order to accurately diagnose a vehicle they also need to know if it has mods that could affect the diagnosis.

All of you go to at least one other brand of car and pull out the Warranty & Maintanance Booklet (or equivalent) from the glovebox and compare it to SOAs. How much you want to bet they are nearly verbatim? NO MANUFACTURER will cover a repair on a vehicle that has been ABUSED/DRIVEN ABUYSIVELY. What are you nuts? Pay particular attention to the sections on when and how warranty can be voided. You will see it is all legitimate. Just because a company makes a sports car doesnt mean they will cover repairs due to people beating the crap out of them or driving them in a manner inconsistant with a passenger vehicle.

I'm not saying that someone is driving abusively, what I'm saying is that they will throw that at you to cover their ars...

3) Finally, most of the answers here will tell you to look for a mod-friendly dealership. There are more and more dealerships that offer aftermarket installations. Mine does, for example. And they appear to be the most reasonable.

Major Subaru in Queens is not exactly mod "friendly", but they are rational and reasonable, and most of their service advisor people don't actually notice mods. The mechanics themselves could care less about them. The Subaru service is actually done by Major Chrysler.

What about lowering springs

Do they Void out warranties if you have any aftermaket springs, strut bars, coilovers or any kind of suspension installed in your car?. I should get some money back if they're gonna void out my warranties. I thought it was part of my deal when I bought the car. Suspension work suppose to help you improve your driving and you safety. this is 8uII$h1T.

Re: What about lowering springs

Originally posted by Leo Do they Void out warranties if you have any aftermaket springs, strut bars, coilovers or any kind of suspension installed in your car?. I should get some money back if they're gonna void out my warranties. I thought it was part of my deal when I bought the car. Suspension work suppose to help you improve your driving and you safety. this is 8uII$h1T.

I think it is fair to say that most of the rumblings that you hear about denied warranty issues are with the manual transmissions. Many people that don't know how to drive AWD manuals along with just being an antiquated design have caused a rush of broken boxes. If you strip a gear, there is a good possibility that they will look at a modded car and try to claim abuse.

They cannot outright void an entire warranty, they can however deny warranty claims for cause. An aftermarket part does not automatically make it superior to a stock part. If the parts that you add cause problems with the suspension and associated systems, don't plan on having it automatically covered.

As far as getting money back, a warranty is not a catch all for broken parts for 3 y/36000 (or whatever), it is an insurance policy that the parts that came from the factory are free of defects. Add more power or stress components due to aftermarket parts or abuse and it is all you....

The best advice is to find a mod-friendly dealer. They will work with you if you work with them.

I have been trying to put a lot of thought into doing the safest mods both in terms of having my car last a long time, and out of concern regarding the whole warranty issue. During the course of all my research, I've contacted two Subaru dealers and the one thing they both stressed was that ECU modifications were bad, bad, bad to get caught with. One of the dealers, that was also a ProDrive dealer and claimed to be mod friendly, made the statement that an ECU mod of any kind would void the warranty on the ENTIRE CAR!

However, this dealer also said that "bolt-on" parts would not void the warranty, unless they could be directly attributed to a particular problem. This dealership also claimed to be the largest in the U.S. They did not, however, offer installation of aftermarket mods other than cat-back exhausts.

The other smaller dealer was even more laid back. Their Subaru mechanic was damn excited about the idea of getting to install stuff on my new WRX and was talking about turning his wife's wagon into a twin turbo terror. His input was that there is no problem with stuff like a TBE or whatever, but that if I wanted to do engine management without voiding the warranty, a piggyback chip was the way to go because it could be removed before the car was brought in for warranty work and would leave no trace that it was ever there.

That SCCA membership is really something to wonder about. It could be a good way for Subaru to red flag abusive WRX owners. I don't think I'll make use of mine, and may even resist the urge to see what the car will do at the track after I have all my mods done.

Lastly, I get the impression Subaru may be trying to lighten up a bit or be at least reasonable when it comes to their marketing vs. their warranty. I just got my second issue of their magazine, "Drive", in which they feature info on WRX's that have been both modded and used in off-road events. They know exactly what they're selling to us, how they're getting us to buy it, how we're going to drive it because we can, and so on. I believe they even participate in our local SCCA RallyX events to an extent.

It seems like it all boils down to them covering their ars like someone else was saying. There's a heavily modified '04 not far from here that is owned and thrashed badly by a teenager. I wouldn't warranty that car either if I were them and will be personally amazed if the thing doesn't go up in flames within the first year. All the work was done at a Ford dealership, which is just plain scary.

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